Horizontal disciplines and 'paradigm shifts'

A thought:

It is precisely the shift from one vocabulary to another (within a horizontal discipline) that is involved in fundamental epistemological transformations. eg from empiricist to interpretative to critical to postie, etc. Or through the Women's ways of knowing. Or Piaget. Or any other dialectical developmental process of change.

Seems Bernstein may have used Rorty but simply turned him upside down, reinstalling a Francophile rationalism as the true goal of knowledge, universities, education, you name it. BTW quite a contrast with Halliday, who despite his commitment to 'system', is much more frank about the limits of inward-looking theory-construction and system building, and open to the messiness of instantial reality. Of course, for Halliday they constitute a continuum so there is no need to choose one over the other end of the spectrum.

Vertical disciplines are (I assume) just a continuum - like the criterion referenced approach. (Interesting that this is not my understanding of say Maths - which involved 'jumps', 'discontinuites' as you move from one level to another. Maybe this is why B places it as a horizontal discipline.)

Need to check:

- Engestrom

- Vygotsky

- re-look at Rorty